Defining My Terms. When I say the Sovereignty of God, I mean the control of God over all physical and spiritual reality. This implies his kingship, rulership, and ownership of all that is. When I say control, I mean control. Not influence merely. Providence is how his sovereignty weaves all things together for the good of his people, however bleak it may seem for a time.
Presuppostions. I think that God loves himself more than he loves anyone or anything. I think God finds himself so satisfying, that it spilled over into the creative fiat. I think that God created the world so that he could experience his own delight and glory. In order to express all of his glory, his love, beauty, holiness, infinitude, eternality, righteousness, justice, wrath, knowledge, and wisdom, all the manifestions of his glory, he created people whom he would bless and people whom he would curse. This was based upon nothing that they would do, but solely on his choice. He made people whom he would bless so he could demonstrate his love, mercy, imminence, kindess, care, trustworthiness, and peace. He made people whom he would curse so he could demonstrate his holiness, righteousness, wrath, and transcendance. He has woven and intergrated his creation such that all would demonstrate his wisdom and beauty as a whole picture of himself. I embrace the doctrines of Grace, known as Calvinism, although it did not start, nor does it end with John Calvin. Essentially the doctrines of Grace affirm the wholistic sinfulness of humanity and their inability to come to God in their sinful nature. Since we can not choose God, if anyone is going to be saved, God must choose them. Since God has chosen some for salvation, he took on flesh and became a man as the person Jesus Christ. By the death of Jesus, he purchased all those whom were chosen. He then, through the power and regenerating work of the Spirit of God, draws them to his beauty and glory in the message of Jesus Christ and generates faith in them for God in Jesus Christ. Since God has chosen, purchased, and drawn them to and for himself, he preserves them in this grace through their lives. This summarizes the “five points of Calvinism”, Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible Grace, and the Perseverance of the Saints (TULIP for short).
Philosophically. Although I am not a big fan of Jay Adams, he does make a good point in his “More Than Redemption,” aka “A Theology of Christian Counseling,” that God is the environment we live in. He is our atmosphere. Now he gets this from Acts 17 (“…in Him we live and move and have our being…”) when Paul is talking to the hotshot philosophers of the day, and thus serves as a good orientation toward philosophical reasoning about the sovereignty of God. God is our environment because every true believer intuitively believes in monism (that all things come from God). There is no reality that exists outside the realm of God. He creates and defines all that is. If he doesn’t, then it doesn’t exist. This can get thorny when we talk about non-matter things, but we can not escape this. God creates everything he controls and he controls everything he creates. Everything is held in existence by him and if he doesn’t control it, it will cease to exist. He has created nothing to stand on its own, because he has given sovereignty to nothing else. This is particularly true for humans. God spoke us into existence and controls both actively and passively all of our lives. Most people want to prize human freedom, but we forget we did not have a choice in the matter. God created us, there was no input from us. God birthed us to our situation, we had no choice of that either. I had no choice over my eye color, my height, my skin color, my native language, etc. It was all chosen for me. Even in an Arminian world (Arminians generally believe God is sovereign over everything but human choice), we never got a choice as to whether we wanted a choice or not. That was determined by God. And really what it comes down to is that if you affirm that he has planned/determined/ordained anything at all, he must have planned/determined/ordained all things. For instance, if you believe he planned that Jesus Christ would come to suffer for sin, there is no way he could be sure of this unless he planned everything leading up to it. That Mary would not be killed before she was ten, or that Joseph wouldn’t marry someone else. Most people would say, he knew beforehand what would happen that is how he can plan. Sure he knew beforehand, but how did he know. How can he know what choices you would make. If you are totally free in your will, then there is no way anyone can anticipate what you would do. God could guess, but he could be wrong. My point is that prior knowledge would mean that you could only have one choice. If we look at time/historical redemption/timeline of history, everything has not happened, but there is one story of humanity. If you are going to say that there is any symmetry or plan to all or part of this story, then you must by default say that the whole thing was planned. This is a tough logical pill to swallow, but it makes sense.
Objection. God can know something without planning it, so it doesn’t follow that he must plan everything in order to plan some things.
Answer. This kind of reasoning gets you into trouble another way. Let’s say that God knows everything that is going to happen because he has infinite knowledge past, present, and future and not because he planned it. If he sees the future of his creation before he creates and sees that people are going to suffer, disasters are going to happen, people will reject him and go to hell, why would he still go ahead and create them? He knows what’s going to happen yet he goes right ahead with it. In a sense, then, he is creating it to happen. He is bringing it forth by “initiating” creation.
Objection. God would not be causing it to happen because they have freely chosen to reject, it was their choice and they would be suffering the consequences of their own actions.
Answer. If you are going to say that God is loving and doesn’t want anyone to go to hell and suffer forever, and he has a chance to prevent this from happening, why wouldn’t he prevent it from happening? You would have to say that love here would cause God to let them do what they want to do. Thus God is powerless to do what he wants (save them) because he loves them too much. That doesn’t make sense because in effect, you are saying that they are going to hell because they are experiencing the “love” of God. That’s comforting. “Thanks for loving me God, think of me when I’m in hell.” This is a warped view of the love of God.
Biblically. Although it would seem the Bible is split on this issue, I would say that from Genesis to Revelation, God prizes his own sovereignty as the foundation of life. Genesis 1 is crystal clear about the fact that God created and initiated all of existence. “God…, God…, God…” How can one escape all of the mammoth texts that exalt the sovereignty of God:
Job 23:14-15, “But He is unique and who can turn Him? And {what} His soul desires, that He does. 14 “For He performs what is appointed for me, And many such {decrees} are with Him”
Psalm 33:9-11, “For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart from generation to generation.”
Psalm 115:3, “But our God is in the heaven, He does whatever he pleases.”
Proverbs 16:4, “The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the wicked for the day of evil.”
Isaiah 14:26-27, “This is the plan devised against the whole earth; and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has planned and who can frustrate it? And for His stretched-out hand, who can turn it back?”
Isaiah 43:13, “Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who deliver out of my hand; I act and who can reverse it?”
Isaiah 45:9-10, “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker-an earthenware vessl among the vessels of the earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”
Lamentations 3:32,37-38, “if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness…Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?
Romans 9:11, “…for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls…”
Romans 9:14-18, “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”
Romans 11:36, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever.”
These generally suffice to say and maintain that God gloriously ordained all that has and will come. There are many exegetical presuppositions that I assume in these passages and take on a case by case basis. My point here is to emphasize the shear breadth of biblical testimony that undergirds and shapes my language and thinking about the sovereignty of God. We see God hardening hearts, causing calamity, and doing whatever he pleases. I believe the Bible to be God’s inspired testimony, covenant, and promise of his glories and that it is providentially and prophetically impeccable (notwithstanding issues of textual criticism).
Personally. There is nothing more comforting, satisfying, attractive, dreadful, aweful, and humbling than knowing that God is behind everything. Every scratch I get, every one who cuts me off on 128, all my car problems, every time I get sick, every time I get an overdraft charge, miss a payment, every time somebody is in my way, every time I oversleep, every shower I take, every book I get, every thought and sight of my fiance, every laugh, every good meal, every good song, movie, or show, every heartache and tear is ordained and maintained by the grace and glory and will of God. I’m never outside the control of One who is greatest of all beings, the infinitely helpful, tasty, and pervading One.
